Roberto Prosseda
Patmos is one of the most suggestive Greek islandsproclaimed a UNESCO World Heritage Site 25 years ago. The blue skies and the white houses huddled around the little port, and then up there perched on the hills, the Orthodox monastery, and then the cave where the evangelist John lived, who had the vision that gave birth to the Apocalypse. To all these reasons to visit Patmos, another one has been added for three years: the Patmos Chamber Music Festival which brings together for two weeks some of the most illustrious chamber musicians in the world with absolute excellence in Christian and Orthodox liturgical singing, such as the MusicAeterna Byzantina Male Choir of Theodor Currentzis or the British The Tallis Scholars of Peter Philips, experimenting with new formations and rare repertoires in places of touching, archaic and arcane beauty, such as the Amphitheatre of the Apocalypse, a thousand-year-old destination of pilgrimage for the world’s Christian and Orthodox communities.
The festival was born thanks to the initiative of two Italians Maximum Fine founder of Piano&OperaBarga in Tuscanyone of the most sophisticated festivals on the European scene, which has truly made history and dictated the ways and tastes of making music in the beautiful in the second half of the twentieth century and Roberto Prosseda pianist and popularizer pillar of the festival together with his wife Alessandra Ammara, both esteemed concert artists in the best international circuits. The concerts are free and open to the entire community, to reaffirm its horizontal, democratic and inclusive nature, contrary to any materialistic exclusivity.
This year the Festival expands by reviving the previous review of sacred music in September, now in its 22nd edition, and bringing it to an artistic level of notable excellence, equal to the line of chamber music that will alternate with it in the historical agora collections of the island, notably the Ancient Theological School, Panagia Diasozousa and the Amphitheatre of the Apocalypse, commissioned by Monastery of St. John founded in 1088, right next to the famous Cave of the Apocalypse, the last earthly home of the Evangelist and a place of millennial veneration.
Thus, alongside ensembles of world-class calibre and reputation such as the MusicAeterna Male Choir of Greek director Theodor Currentzis, with the historic Choirmaster Antonis Koutroupis or the British Tallis Scholars Choir of Peter Philips, we will also haveGreek artists of true value, little represented on European stages and therefore certainly a source of curiosity and interest for the large international public, such as the double sacred concert of the soprano soloist of MusicAeterna, the Athenian Eleni-Lydia Stamellou, first in a trio of lute and baroque cello, then with the vocal quartet Kalifonica. This rare blend of Greek-Byzantine vocal culture and our sacred music, now more explored in a cultural key, is also due to the ccreative collaboration of the artistic director Roberto Prosseda, celebrated Italian pianist, with the Greek composer Alkis Baltas, who also composed a new sacred piece for the festival, which will be performed as a world premiere.
The festival lives off the generosity of its guests, the support of the municipality of Patmos and, as of this year, the new main sponsor Alain Rauscher, but it is inevitably destined, thanks to its uniqueness, to become an important meeting place for minds and cultures in the years to come, a new jewel of an island whose rigour has always fascinated the most sophisticated Wanderers from all over Europe.
https://www.patmosmusicfestival.com/
Concerts of the last few days
September 4thAmphitheatre of the Apocalypse, 9:00 PM
Hymn to the Virgin Mary
Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179): Cumprocessit factura
O Orzchis Ecclesia
Oh bloody roar
Francesco Provenzale (1632-1704): On the Stages of the Stars
Anonymous: Maria durch ein Dornwald ging
Splendens Star
Hail King of the English People
Christ is born
William Byrd (ca. 1540-1623): Ave Verum Corpus (1605)
Guillaume Dufay (ca. 1397-1474): Beautiful Virgin
Alma Redemptoris Mater
Good morning, Good month
Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643): Exulta Filia Sion (1629)
Eleni-Lydia Stamellou, soprano
Konstantin Shenikov, lute
Antoine Billet, baroque cello
September 5thAmphitheatre of the Apocalypse, 9:00 PM
John Pierluigi of Palestrina: Queen of Heaven
Anonymous: Gaudete Christus natus est
William Byrd: Ave verum Corpus
Josquin des Pres: Here Tollis
Christobal de Morales: Pastores Dicite
Thomas Tallis: Verily, verily I say unto you
Thomas Tallis: O Lord give thy Holy spirit
Christopher Tye: Praise
Tomas Luis de Victoria: Missa O magnum mysterium
Kalifonica Vocal Quartet
Eleni-Lydia Stamellou, soprano
Anastasia Guliaeva, contralto
Nikolai Fedorov, tenor
Ilia Manzurov, bass
September 6thAmphitheatre of the Apocalypse, 9:00 PM
“Te Ri Rem”
Petrou Bereketou: Taste and see
Athanasiou Karamanis: Every breath – Praise
Harilaou Taliadorou: A prostitute came to you
Peter of Ephesus: Those in Christ with Power
Petros Lampadariou: Cherubicon
Petros Lampadariou: Detention
Petro Bereketou: Mary (from octave Theotoke Parthene)
Petrou Lampadariou: Antiphon D’Icho (From my youth)
Grigoriou Protopsaltos: I love You Lord my strength
Georgiou Tsatsaronis: Retention
MusicAeterna Byzantina Male Choir
